Smart Grid Today Podcast

Ryan Kennedy is co-founder and CEO of Atom Power, a company that invented what it believes is the first ever solid state digital breaker switch, allowing digital automation of electrical distribution – at variable scales within the same device. Kennedy described for us the huge values the device offers including virtually ending the deadly threat of arc flash events, allowing remote breaker control and monitoring, super-fast switching, DG scenarios that could change in an instant and whenever needed, and much more.

Bidgely CEO Abhay Gupta explained how Bidgely teams with utilities to build relationships with their customers using artificial intelligence that analyzes what appliances are being used when and even whether the customer has purchased an EV, for example. This lets the utility know who to offer special rates and rebates to and opens a world of value to utilities and their customers, letting that relationship be modernized in ways other industries have been perfecting for years.

This fairly new cybersecurity firm uses blockchain to secure energy infrastructure and has worked with GE on wind turbine security and other energy deployments and features decades of experience in cybersecurity. Arutyunov explained how blockchain makes cybersecurity work and how tackling legacy utility systems and protocols made for interesting challenges as the firm geared up for very large deployments of smart grid technology.

Leclanche Executive VP Bryan Urban sees big opportunities brewing for grid-scale battery systems – including the software that manages them – at the distribution and transmission levels, and is especially focused on how solar plus battery storage is starting to take on characteristics of baseload power generation in both expanding the hours the energy is available but also in frequency regulation and grid support around the globe.

Brent Alderfer is CEO of Community Energy and a former energy lawyer and former state utility regulator for Colorado. His firm for 20 years has been deploying large-scale renewables and he is outspoken about how to make reaching the climate goal of 80% renewables on the grid by 2030 not only doable but really economically attractive for utilities, large C&I customers and even the communities his firm is named for. Community Energy has been driving big deployments of wind and solar for two decades and is now offering big energy storage rollouts. He told us how all this can be so attractive for utilities and non-utility investors.

Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative CEO Patty Durand's organization tracks public awareness of smart grid and related developments in electric industry modernization and has put out multiple reports based on public surveys and surveys of industry executives to help the industry and its regulators understand how messages about the progress of the industry are being received – focused on what’s working where and how to maximize the benefits in the evolving relationships of electricity providers and their customers. Durand spoke to us in detail about a report compiled from several studies that was released this year.

Franklin Energy recently launched the NGAGE platform that lets utilities connect with customers and enable participation in utility programs throughout what the firm calls "every user's unique journey." Scheuller explained how his firm is addressing the changes in the industry with tools that help its utility clients deliver what customers want while at the same time addressing the big changes in generation and grid stability that all utilities are faced with today and going forward. Franklin Energy started 25 years ago managing energy efficiency programs and now, with about 1,200 employees, offers demand response, customer engagement software, and a variety of other services that relate to the smart grid and electric industry modernization.

EMotorWerks CEO Valery Miftakhov founded his firm to retrofit gasoline cars as EVs and soon found out that using EV charging technology to bring value to the grid was a great new opportunity worldwide. He described some of the advanced work his firm has done in showing that vision truly is valuable and also what he hopes utility regulators can accomplish to allow firms like his to bring value to regulation markets where the smaller assets are not supported and by creating new markets where the opportunities are simply untapped.

Google Director of Energy & Enterprise Partnerships Jeff Hamel joined us to talk about the work Google is doing with Xcel Energy in Denver along with other electric utilities and energy firms in its ongoing efforts to grow into a critical role it can play in the energy industry in enabling the energy future imagined by technologists, regulators, the utility industry, and especially the general public. Google devices already at play in this effort include the Nest Learning Thermostat and devices with the Google Assistant, including Android phones and the the Google Home, Google Mini, and Google Hub devices, but those devices can communicate with an ever larger cadre of smart home technologies that are helping evolve the relationship between people and energy, and utility customers and their energy providers.

ICF International utility business Senior Vice President Patty Cook and Senior Manager Justin Mackovyak joined us to discuss the evolution of utility demand-side management projects. ICF is a well respected and very experienced consultancy that among many other specialties, helps electric utilities manage their modernization and digitization efforts. Patty and Justin spoke about ICF’s work with utility demand-side management programs, especially the success they had helping the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) with its demand side management programs and demand response. The firm runs over 150 such programs for 46 electric utilities in the US alone, Patty noted, and she and Justin helped us understand what steps they are using to find the best results in those programs as many of their utility clients are looking at how to evolve those programs to match where the industry is headed.